An Iran-backed Houthi missile strike on Saudi Arabia’s busiest airport killed at least 12 people, including an American, and injured more than 300 others Saturday as President Donald Trump considered whether to join Saudi-led military operations against the group.
The strike hit the King Khalid International Airport complex in Riyadh, which houses two passenger terminals. Panicked travelers fled the scene, nearby hospitals were inundated with casualties, and officials halted operations at the kingdom’s main aviation center.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation reported 12 deaths and 309 injuries, with several victims in critical condition. Those killed included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, and nationals of the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Sudan, and Palestine.
The Wall Street Journal described the assault as Saudi Arabia’s deadliest in more than a decade. It came as the Houthis expanded a missile campaign targeting the kingdom’s airports and other civilian sites.
The deadly strike also increased the possibility of direct U.S. military involvement in the renewed conflict.
Asked outside the White House whether he had decided to participate in Saudi-led strikes on the Houthis, Trump said:
“We may. We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”
Trump announced no immediate decision. His comments also came before Saudi officials publicly confirmed that an American citizen was among those killed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio later denounced the strike, specifically recognizing the death of the American citizen and affirming U.S. backing for Saudi Arabia.
“The United States strongly condemns the recent attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by the terrorist Houthis, including today’s strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh that took numerous innocent lives, including an American citizen,” Rubio wrote Saturday. “These reprehensible attacks demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life. They must stop now. We stand with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people and extend our condolences to the victims and their families.”
Saturday’s assault marked the third attack on Riyadh’s primary international airport in a single week. The Houthis escalated their campaign after Saudi-backed forces launched a major counteroffensive in Yemen.
The missile hit the section containing Terminals 3 and 4. The Wall Street Journal reported that both terminals sustained direct impacts, while witnesses described chaos and explosions inside the airport.
“I was on gate 403. I saw [gate] 401 hit, I saw injured [people] in front of my eyes. Everyone was running,” a witness told Agence France-Presse.
Ambulances and helicopters transported the injured to hospitals as medical teams struggled to handle the sudden surge of patients. Several victims remained in critical condition.
Reuters, citing people familiar with the incident, including Western officials, reported that Saudi Arabia’s threat-warning system had issued no advance public alert before the attack.
The Houthis later claimed responsibility. The Iran-backed group’s media chief said the attack had “shut down Riyadh international airport.”
The group had already designated Saudi airspace a military operations zone and warned commercial airlines against flying without its authorization. After Saturday’s strike, the Houthi military spokesman reposted a message saying only approved humanitarian flights would be allowed to land in Riyadh, adding: “a reminder.”
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Saudi officials rerouted or canceled flights and temporarily closed the airport. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh advised Americans to stay away, saying it “strongly recommends all US citizens avoid this airport and surrounding areas.”
The Saudi-led coalition called the attack on the airport a “full-blown war crime” and promised a strong military response.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, the coalition’s spokesman, labeled the strike a “terrorist act that will be met with a firm response.”
“The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will respond to this terrorist attack firmly and in accordance with international humanitarian law and its customary rules,” he said.
Saturday’s massacre came less than a week after Yemen’s internationally recognized government announced Operation Yemen Dawn, a major counteroffensive to reclaim strategic territory seized during a rapid Houthi offensive along the country’s Red Sea coastline.
The campaign was announced Sunday, with the Saudi-led coalition launching its own military operation the following day in Yemen’s Hodeidah province. The offensive followed weeks of Houthi territorial gains around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital maritime chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis had threatened to obstruct Saudi-linked shipping through Bab el-Mandeb, threatening a critical alternative export route as the wider war with Iran disrupted maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi-backed forces have claimed gains around Bab el-Mandeb and nearby Perim Island, although control of the strategically important territory remains disputed.
The counteroffensive has been accompanied by Saudi-led airstrikes against Houthi missile facilities and military positions, while the terrorist group has intensified its attacks on Saudi airports and other infrastructure.
Earlier in the week, Houthi missile attacks on airports in Riyadh and Abha killed three civilians and wounded dozens more, as Saudi forces continued striking missile-storage facilities, command centers, and launch sites inside Yemen.
Additional strikes on Riyadh’s airport later Thursday killed three Saudi citizens, including an airline pilot, and damaged a Saudi commercial aircraft, according to Saudi authorities.
Al-Maliki warned before Saturday’s attack that the Houthi strikes “will not go unpunished.”
Saturday’s attack killed more people in a single assault than the earlier airport strikes combined, marking the deadliest escalation yet in the Houthis’ renewed campaign against Saudi Arabia.
Washington has already provided Saudi Arabia with intelligence, targeting assistance, and operational planning support against the Houthis, while also facilitating Israeli intelligence coordination through U.S. Central Command.
Direct American strikes, however, would represent a significant expansion of Washington’s military role in the conflict.
With Saudi Arabia vowing retaliation, Rubio condemning the killing of an American citizen, and Trump openly considering joining the kingdom’s military campaign, Saturday’s attack has brought the possibility of direct U.S. intervention in Yemen into sharper focus.
